Advertising of prescription drugs is prohibited in Romania, probably for good reasons. This leaves room for a very rich market for the promotion of dietary supplements and simple over-the-counter drugs. In addition to dietary supplements, there are also natural products – some are presented as supplements, others as “health” products. Dietary supplements and natural products generally make sense and have clearly demonstrated benefits. But they also have a problem: advertisements and prospectuses often exaggerate far beyond any common sense.

Yes, vitamins (A, C, E, group B, etc.) are called so because they are vitally important: without them, we would die. But for a healthy person, normal nutrition provides all necessary vitamins. The same with minerals (sodium, iron, zinc, etc.). Yes, at certain ages, certain diets or certain diseases, we may need vitamin and mineral supplements. but… it is the same as with food or water: we cannot live without it, but too much is not good either. In healthy people, an excess of vitamins or minerals may not be biochemically necessary, but sometimes it can lead to imbalance or even disease.. Advertisements, however, don’t tell us this, except in the fine print that no one reads. Most advertisements (and advertising texts, and then promotional texts) for vitamins and minerals tell us to “prevent [cutare] diseases”, “strengthens the system [cutare] body,” etc. – without clearly telling us that, in general, people actually have enough of that vitamin or mineral in their bodies and in their diets – and don’t need supplements. The ad appeals directly to the general public without nuance. Or with deliberately vague nuances: “you tired? Take our pill.”

In addition to common sense information, leaflets and advertisements for many dietary supplements and natural products contain a sinister and deeply poisonous lie. Claims to treat incurable diseases or diseases that can only be cured by drugs and very complex medical procedures. But it’s nothing, our tea [cutare] prevent and cure that, that, that. And we have teas and capsules from all herbs, for all ailments. Money for the client. And if you don’t want tea or capsules that sound too “childish and retrograde” for you, then we have some “scientifically proven, online and German” vitamins and minerals. And from that moment on, the line between pseudotherapy and pseudoscience almost disappears.

All those who deny modern medicine (and science in general) stand proudly in the boat of supplement advertising. And in the conditions of the COVID crisis, this could be explained by the huge losses for society – not only in the saddest way through deaths, but also financially and, more difficult, due to the destabilization of the government as a whole. Basically, “I’m not going to do what the government says about vaccines and masks and stuff, because I’ve been taking herbal and mineral extracts for my immune system, like that lady doctor said on the show, she said very well.” But part of the authorities of our society also climbed into the same boat for a while. A drinking liquid containing superoxide dismutase has made waves all the way up to the ministerial level, including with the support of the army. It didn’t matter that superoxide dismutase was a protein and that it had once arrived. in the digestive system it will be digested, cut into pieces, so there is no way for it to enter the patient’s bloodstream to benefit them (although you can’t rule out any indirect effects through the bacterial flora, none of which have been clearly studied yet). And even if it entered the bloodstream, would the immune system recognize it as a foreign protein? Clinical trials will answer these questions, but… the same public that is picky about the top end of vaccine clinical trials is not picky at all about things that are “plant-based”. On the other hand: if this boat of exaggerations exists, if it is also filled with people who want to profit at the expense of society or the country, someone may ask: shouldn’t the authorities, the power institutions of the state, get into it? and are they there to make sure they can control the direction if needed?

The myths and conspiracies that flourish around supplements and natural products are deeply damaging. They have been used to destabilize democratic societies (ie, among others, those that recognize freedom of speech) – especially during the COVID crisis. We see how they increasingly infiltrate key state institutions. As such, they have national security implications. What do we do then?

Everyone knows the boring answers that don’t have an immediate effect – teach more, remind managers, be more responsible for manufacturers, make changes, reboot, etc. The scientific community needs to take a stand (see for example this manifesto against the pseudo-therapies proposed by the UBB). In the shorter term: would it be useful to ban the advertising of dietary supplements on the same model as for drugs? If I’m not allowed to advertise a legitimate anti-cancer or anti-diabetic drug, why would I be allowed to advertise an “herbal” or “vitamin” syrup that they claim (without real clinical studies) cures or prevents cancer or diabetes?

The scientific community is silent and, even worse, often complicit in this toxic and irresponsible spiral that supplements and natural products have been in for some time. Even in works from specialized journals, not to mention didactic texts, we find the same convenient exaggerations that in scientific work increase the obvious importance of results. Did we find a herbal syrup that kills cancer cells in a test tube? That’s it, then it’s okay to sell an over-the-counter product with the promise that it will do the same thing not only in test tubes but in humans. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know if it works in any animal body, or it doesn’t matter that it’s only been tested on mice and not humans, it doesn’t matter that we don’t know the effective dose, we don’t know what the side effects might be effects, we don’t know how it will interact with already existing legitimate treatments… It looks good in our ministry to throw around the word anti-cancer and that’s it.

For those who think in strictly applied scientific terms about what supplements are and how they affect the body, the answer may be easy: yes, this disgusting ad should be banned. But this answer is too simple – and possibly wrong. Arguably, the greatest benefit from supplements and natural products is actually not when they do some good on a directly observable biochemical measure, but when they don’t do much.Read the rest of the article on Contributors.ro